The present invention relates generally to the art of surface cleaning, and more particularly, is directed to a manually operated type of mechanical surface cleaning apparatus.
The present apparatus finds utility for cleaning sidewalks, walkways, streets, the interior of large buildings, garages, institutions, warehouses, factories and similar places. The device is used to remove dirt, litter, leaves and other loose material from areas generally served by street cleaners, custodial personnel, professional cleaning organizations, etc. At the present time, it is the usual practice when cleaning public highways to employ large, costly, motor driven vehicles which have rotary brushes and/or vacuum producers attached and which usually incorporate some type of spray apparatus for dust control purposes. These large vehicles are generally satisfactory but are quite costly in initial capital outlay and are also costly in operation. Such vehicles require the services of one or two employees and additionally utilize large quantities of fuel such as gasoline during the daily cleaning operation. Such vehicles are noisy and emit polluting gases.
Such vehicles have found wide employment in those instances wherein it is desirable or necessary to clean large numbers of streets within a relatively short period of time. In addition to the drawbacks above mentioned, the large mechanically operated cleaning vehicles have been found generally unsuitable for congested areas such as the business sections of large cities wherein the amount of traffic usually present renders it extremely difficult to economically employ such large vehicles. Additionally, in such congested areas, the large cleaning vehicles present a real hazard to pedestrians who are generally present in great numbers. Under such conditions, it has generally been the practice to employ hand sweepers, that is, men specially employed to sweep the streets by utilizing a hand broom. Such workers generally are additionally equipped with a wheeled cart which holds a trash container thereon. Thus, a sweeper must first manually sweep accumulated dirt into a pile and then somehow lift the pile into the container. This process is repeated time and time again until the container is full and must be taken to a point of disposal. It will be remembered that two complete separate operations are thus required from a single worker, namely, first to sweep the dirt by employing a hand broom and after the dirt has been swept into a pile, then to advance a wheeled cart so that the pile can be transferred into a trash container. These operations must necessarily be quite time consuming and require the sweeper to continually backtrack over the same ground for sweeping and container transporting purposes.
In the case of privately owned areas, such as sidewalks and other flat surfaces, mechanically operated smaller cleaning devices have been provided in the past, many of such vehicles being of the so-called vacuum cleaner type. These prior art cleaners have performed generally satisfactorily, but are objectionable in that they are noisy, that they consume energy and that they are costly to purchase.